CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was well-past dark when the agents returned to the Philadelphia Field Office. Marcus started a fresh pot of coffee while Darnell outlined the information he’d received from the court. Kate sat at the table in the breakroom, left index finger tapping softly as she mulled over the case so far.
“When I told Judge Harmon that we had a third body, she finally relented and released the rest of the records,” Darnell told them.
He didn’t sound triumphant so much as frustrated that it had taken three bodies—two of them related to the Avery case—to prompt action on her part.
“Ray Castillo pointed out a series of footprints in an alley near the jewelry store. Police matched those to Daniel Avery’s shoes and presented that as evidence that he was inside the store and standing in front of Narek Tankian at the time of Tankian’s death.
It proved instrumental in swaying the jury, as it was the strongest physical evidence the prosecution had. ”
“Stronger than the blood on his sleeve?” Marcus asked.
“The blood was determined to belong to Mr. Avery,” Darnell said.
Marcus scoffed. “Wonderful.”
“So, Castillo was our witness?” Kate asked.
Darnell shook his head. “No. The eyewitness was a man named Stuart Pelham. I gave that information to one of our junior agents. Once he’s found, we’ll offer protection and alert his local police force of the danger to his life.”
“I want to talk to him, too,” Kate said.
“I’ll make sure to request an interview.”
“Don’t make it a request,” Kate said. “He could have information we need. We’re going to talk to him.”
“Understood.”
Marcus crossed his arms. “Donna Frick is still an outlier. That’s bothering me.”
“Me, too,” Kate said. “Darnell, has cybercrimes found anything on the victims’ computers?”
Darnell shook his head. “Nothing relevant to the case, no.”
“Hmm. And no indication that Donna Frick knew either Ray Castillo or Gerald Mace?”
“It appears she rarely used her computer,” Darnell said. “And no, there’s nothing to indicate that she knew either of the other victims.”
“You think the killer did it on purpose to throw us off?” Marcus asked. “To give themselves time to go after Ray?”
“I can’t imagine they’re that worried about us right now,” Kate said. “They’ve killed three people in three days. Combined with the anger in the handwriting of the ciphers and the gloating in the third cipher, I think they’re operating on emotion as much as they’re fulfilling a mission.”
“So, we do think they’re fulfilling a mission,” Darnell said.
“They are,” Kate confirmed. “Whether it’s Cox’s mission or a personal mission is still up in the air, but they’re definitely correcting violators of the ninth commandment.”
“Maybe the killer knew the Smiths,” Marcus suggested. “Maybe they’re killing people who hurt both Daniel Avery and the Smiths.”
“Hmm,” Kate mused. “That makes sense.”
“Maybe there’s a connection between Avery and the Smiths,” Darnell suggested.
“Could be,” Marcus agreed. “I can dig into that. I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight anyway, so I might as well have something to do.”
“I’ll continue to search for a connection to Elijah Cox,” Darnell offered. He looked at Kate. “If that’s all right with you.”
“That’s fine with me,” Kate said. “I want to get to the bottom of this cipher. In past Commandment Killing cases, the messages to me have usually indicated where Cox or his disciple intends to culminate their plan.”
Darnell frowned, but he didn’t push Kate for information on her relationship… Yeah, screw that word. Her connection—Cox’s obsession with her. Damn it, even that made her feel dirty.
Why me? she asked for the thousandth time. What does he see in me?
“Long before you knew of me, I knew of you. You were destined for great things. I could see it in your eyes.”
She shivered, then sipped her coffee, feigning cold.
The fever in Cox’s eyes as he said that disturbed her.
It was the same light they held when he told her it was God’s plan for them to burn together.
Somehow, Elijah Cox had convinced himself that his calling was to die with Kate, a murder-suicide that in his twisted mind would absolve the world of its sins and teach them to observe God’s commandments.
Sometimes she wished she could see inside of his mind, just for a moment, just long enough to know what made him think the things he thought, feel the things he felt. Just long enough to understand what had twisted him.
But what purpose would that serve? To prove he was insane? To prove he was obsessed with her? She knew these things already.
But she didn’t know what his connection with her father was.
She didn’t know what had happened between them that caused Cox to decide Kate was the linchpin of his murder spree.
She wanted to know. More than anything, she wanted to know why her father had to die.
What secrets was he hiding? What secrets was Cox hiding?
Her mind drifted to Darnell’s opinion on Cox’s motives. If Cox was eliminating victims who knew things about him, then what did her father know? And if not, then what in the old photograph of Kate holding a stuffed armadillo at a zoo triggered the evil in Cox’s mind.
Was that what finally sent Cox over the edge? Had he contained his insanity before then? Had something he saw in Kate caused the last dam to burst? If so, then couldn’t it be said that all of this, when you came down to it, was her fault?
Her phone buzzed. She jumped, spilling coffee on her hand. She flinched back and shook the offending liquid off. “Ah! Damn it!”
“Are you all right?” Marcus said, jumping to her side.
“I’m fine,” she snapped. She looked at the phone. “Winters. I’ll take this.”
She answered and was treated to Winters’ usual bluntness. “Report.”
Yeah, nice to see you, too, ma’am. No, don’t worry about my hand, I have a spare.
The pain was calming now, though, and along with it the urge to lash out.
“We have three victims,” she informed Winters.
“Two are possibly culpable in the falsification of evidence in a thirty-five-year-old murder case and the third so far just appears to be a lying asshole on at least one unrelated occasion.”
Winters took a moment to process that. “I see. Have you confirmed that this is a Commandment Killing?”
Kate debated answering in the affirmative.
If she said no, there was a possibility that Winters might take her off the case and have her return home to finish out the eight-week leave on which she was originally placed.
Then again, if she said yes, there was the same possibility.
The last time Kate and Marcus had gone after Cox, Cox had nearly killed Kate.
So, she might as well tell the truth. “Not yet, ma’am.”
“Really?” Winters seemed surprised.
“There are aspects that seem very much like the Commandment Killings,” Kate said, “and other aspects that seem unlike those killings. It’s possible that we’re dealing with a more sophisticated copycat than the previous one.”
Winters sighed. “In your professional opinion, do you believe that this is the work of Elijah Cox or one of his disciples, or do you believe it is a copycat?”
Kate thought for a long moment. She forced emotion away and weighed all of the evidence they’d collected against all the gaps in that evidence. She didn’t have enough to confirm either way, but…
“I believe this is a work of a disciple of Cox.”
Marcus looked down at his coffee, disappointed, though not necessarily disagreeing. Darnell gave an approving nod. He was an oddball, that Darnell. Kate hoped to have a conversation with him at the end of this to get a better idea of how his mind worked.
“Very well,” Winters said. “In that case, I will allow you and Agent Reid to remain lead on this case. Be aware, Kate, that there are a lot of eyes on this. A lot of people believe that you’ll lose control again. Some of those people are hoping for that.”
Kate swallowed. It was no secret to her that she had enemies in the Bureau. Like all law enforcement organizations, the Bureau hated mavericks. They especially hated mavericks who turned out to be consistently correct. “I understand, ma’am.”
“Good. By the book this time, Kate. I’ve said this before, and you’ve ignored me. Very bluntly, you don’t have the option of ignoring me this time without permanent and unavoidable consequences to your career, even if you’re right. Do you understand?”
Kate swallowed again. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. How are you doing?”
Kate blinked. Winters rarely showed concern for her personal wellbeing. She was a good boss, but she wasn’t exactly a friendly boss. “Um… I’m fine.”
“Your injuries aren’t flaring up?”
She shook her head. “No, so far so good. I haven’t had to get into a firefight yet, so—”
“And if you do, you will defer to Agents Reid and Okoye. That’s an order, and I’m not interested in hearing your side.”
Kate’s lips thinned, but it didn’t get much clearer than that. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good luck, agent. Put Reid on the phone.”
Kate’s lips tightened further, but she handed the phone to Marcus. He took it and turned away so Kate couldn’t read his lips. “Yes, ma’am.”
She couldn’t hear most of the conversation after that. Marcus walked to the other end of the room and kept his head down and his voice low. Darnell raised his eyebrows and looked at Kate. She sipped her coffee and refused to meet his eyes.
Darnell slid closer, leaned toward her, and said, “Do you have a history with Elijah Cox?”
His bluntness would have endeared him to Winters. She met his eyes, and to her own surprise, replied, “He seems to think so. I’m trying to find out for sure.”
Darnell regarded her for a moment. His expression remained stoic, but there was real sympathy in his voice when he said, “I’m sorry.”
Some of the tension in Kate’s jaw eased. “Yeah. Me, too.”
Marcus’s voice floated over from the other side of the room. He had turned around and was walking back to them. “All right, ma’am. I’ll keep you posted.”
He hung up and handed the phone back to Kate. Kate accepted it and demanded, “What did she say about me?”
Marcus glanced at Darnell. Darnell got to his feet and said, “I’ll get to work. Good luck you two, and possibly good night. Hopefully when we meet again, we’ll have progress to report.”
He left the conference room. Kate kept her eyes on Marcus the whole time. When the door closed behind Darnell, she said, “Well?”
Marcus sighed. “She wanted you on this case because you’ve consistently refused protective custody. She thought that if Cox was out and about again, you’d be safer out here looking for him with me by your side and an entire field office to protect you, along with quick access to police.”
Kate’s lips pressed together again. “So, I’m not here for my investigative skills. I’m here because Winters doesn’t think I’m safe in my own apartment.”
“I mean, she’s got good reason, Kate. She saw the bruises around your neck.”
Kate shivered and resisted the urge to lift a hand to her neck. The bruises had faded, but she could still feel the way Cox’s thumbs sank into her throat.
“And you really should have taken the protective custody,” Marcus said, sounding miffed. “What could it hurt?”
“If I say yes, then I’ll never leave custody. I’ll lose this case. I can’t do that.”
“Why not? I mean, yeah, you’ve been an unbeatable asset, but does it really have to be you? Protocol would suggest that if a serial killer is fixated on an agent, they stay away from the case.”
“It has to be me,” Kate said. “No one else is a cryptography expert the way I am.”
“Then sit at the office and look at ciphers,” Marcus said. “Then if he’s still obsessed with you, he has a field office full of agents to get through.”
“I’d still be going home at the end of my shifts.”
“But you’d have no reason to say no to protective custody.”
“Sure, I would,” Kate insisted. “I don’t want to be babysat.”
Marcus stared at her. “Kate… Please. Don’t lie to me.”
She looked away, lips trembling. Damn it, why did he always push her on this?
“I need to know, Marcus,” she finally said. “I need to know why.”
Marcus watched her for a long moment. She kept her eyes averted, pressing her lower lip hard into the upper lip to keep it from pushing out in a pout.
Finally, Marcus sighed. Somewhat dejected, he said, “I’m with you, Kate. To the end. No matter what. I hope you know that.”
She looked down. “I know.”
He laid a hand on her shoulder, squeezed softly, and left her in the conference room. She wished with all of her heart that he’d wrapped her in his arms and kissed all of her pain away.
But the pain would only come back. It would last until she had the answers she’d spent fourteen years struggling for.
So, she did the only thing she could do. She sat at the table, pulled out her notes on Ray Castillo’s cipher, and got back to work.